The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-04
HOW TO LIVE ON TEN CENTS A DAY.,
Arguments to Show that Meat Diet Is Not
Essential-Common Sense in Feeding.

| ARGUMENTS LO CH0W budI d Mtdb DIct 10 NV
Essential--Common Sense in Feeding.
Special to the Indianapolis journal
NEW YORK, Sept. 3.-At the gathering OF
scientists at Columbia College a learned profess
sor fascinated his superntellectual hearers by
telling them that a laboring man needs daily
one-fourth pound of proteine. one-fourth pound
of fat. and pound of carbo- hydrates" to keep
him well and strong. If the knowledge seeking
laporer goes to the store for his four Of
proteine his experiment will scarcely increase
his faith in the marketing knowledge of sc;en-
fists. What the laborer and what most OF US
need more than technical essays on the "Physio-
logical and Fecundary Economy of Food" is q
plain talk about sensible feeding and economical
marketing.
"How to Live and Thrive on a Dime per Day.
may stand as the text for this talk. 1t certainly
can be done, and. though the experiment may
be unnviting, it is certain that good health is
psarer akin to the simplest diet than to the
costliest
Now as to the laboring man and his proteine.
Tell him that three-fourths of his weight is
water. and that to restore the days waste he has
to take food; threefourths of which must be
water, and the remainder flesh-forming. heat
stand the case better. Give him table of
foods, analyzed to show just how much heat
giving, fesn-forming and mineral matter there
is in each food. and he will soon take as deep an
interest in what he eats because OF its
worth to him because of its taste.
When he finds out-as he can in half an
hour, that only twenty-four parts in every one
hundred of butchers meat count as flesh form
ers the rest being water, but that from seventy
FIVE to ninety parts out OF every one hundred In
dried peas, beans, oat and wheat meals and
cheese are nutritious and only ten to twenty
five parts waste water, he from that moment
begins to use his common sense in feeding as he
does iii earning his living. The popular rule is,
never pay any heed to the feeding value of our
diet, let cultivate glorious ignorance of the
purpose of foods and go in might and main for
palate-tickers and devil take the dyspepsia Pity
he doesn't
Just fact two appetzers. The great
Peninsuar and Oriental (the 2. and o. Steam
ship Company employ East Indian coolies to do
the hardest work on their steamers because
they are stronger, healthier. and stand the cli-
mate better than Englishmen, and because-not
being meat eaters-their diet costs only cents
per day There miners IN the English co6t-
pits, the hardest workers in the land, who have
not eaten any kind of meat for years. l am not
a vegetarian. because banker after the flesh
pots, and their ssvory odors cast spell over my
innocent soul; yet experimental for one whole
year without tasting flesh or gravy in any form
and all the time my health was perfect and my
weight increased. The dock porters OF Constan-
tinope carry heavier burdens, 250 pounds and
upwards, more easily than the laborers of Eng
land America yet their main diet Is bread
and figs, and yet they are teetotal ana vege-
tartan. The laborers in Spain live chiefly on
bread and onions, and are marvelously strong.
The flesh and blood superstition is quite as
baseless in diet as in theology A horse Is al
most as strong, swift, healthy and handsome as
a two-legged man. and they both have the same
internal machinery; the one eats beef and en-
Joys dyspepsia, the other avoids 1t and ourishes.
Ten cents worth of wheat, oatmeal, rice, fruits.
buttermilk, bread cheese. onions, or portions OF
several of these, will enable a man to do his Or
dinary days work at least as we'll as any other
assortment of foods be can buy for a dollar.
What would be good diet for those who do not
need to study their purses vet who would like
simple. healthy and enjoyable dietarya To
such / would say drop the heavy meat breakfast
right away. Not that meat is bad, but it is not
the best to start the day on. 1t distends the
stomach, indisposes US Tor head work and often
leads to that other downright mlscheVous stu
pidity the eleven o'clock beer or cocktail. The
second evil is taken to cure the first, as If two
black eyes are better than one. Bread mot the
spoiled white stuff, but the natural dark colored
wheat rs groundl, tea or cocoa, eggs and the
hundred and one nonfesh dishes, with a little
fish and much fruit as You like. That's
model meal, experience will provo.
Talking of fish, the more the better. Pound
for pound it is nutritious as desh though fu
doesn't seem fill US 30 fully and its chemical
value is far above that Of meats When have
extra hard brain work to do, say an average of
twelve fourteen hours for two or three weeks
at a stretch, / knock off meats entirely and eat
all the fish l can. Result, perfect health and
strength and no headache
For dinner, fish, soups II am not excluding
meat, though soups can be made without ID tnHt
tastes just the same and are quite as good every
wavl puddings, dessert. If any one cares %
prove for himself how little the flesh dishes on
his dinner table are necessary to him, let him
lust reverse the courses, beginning with the
fruit then cheese and crackers, the pudGings.
ETC. [ warrant he will turn his nose at the
meat when he comes to it. and he won't miss it
the least.
knew an eminent lady who for forty years
had never tasted meat. She a marvel OF
mental and physical strength. Another author
friend kept his health and his average weight Of
100 pounds on diet that never included meaE
the average cost of his food being cents per
day. Another. a well-known literary man, who
looked as beefy as butcher, was. when last I
met him. in his eighth year OF strict abstinsnce
from flesh. Another friend, hard literary
worker. has been practically lifelong vege-
tartan, but he looks too shriveled up to be .
champion specimen OLIVER Fl. G. LEIGH